The Day of the Triffids (1963)

Something a little bit different, and admittedly a little bit last minute this week, as I've found myself with 2 weeks on the bounce inside which I've had time to schedule in a movie night which hasn't happened for a long time just lately but here we are! And I have picked the 1963 adaption of The Day of the Triffids from my movie archive this week for my viewing pleasure mostly because I enjoyed the book as a kid and the idea of a movie adaption sounds quite exciting. And I also just like really old sci-fi movies, if the blog title hasn't given that away before now. I'll be honest, I know virtually nothing going into this. Aside from the fact it seems to be relatively well received, and that it somehow wound up in the public domain. And err... yeah that's about the long and short of it really to be honest! But looking forward to this one and hoping it'll be good.

After the movies frankly AMAZING (-ly 60's...) opening sequence, our narrator (Peter Dyneley) explains that Earth is currently bearing witness to an intense meteor shower as we are introduced to Bill Masen (Howard Keel), a hospital patient who after undergoing an eye operation has been laid up in hospital with his eyes bandaged up for weeks, with the bandages due to be removed tomorrow morning. We are the introduced to Marine Biologist couple Tom Goodwin (Kieron Moore) and Karen Goodwin (Janette Scott) who after a minor argument pledge to leave their lighthouse shelter and return to the mainland first thing in the morning. Meanwhile as the Night Watchman settles in at the Royal Botanical Gardens in London, he is attacked and presumably killed by a giant upright walking plant... The following morning Bill wakes up in hospital to find his bandages still in place and the hospital deserted. After hearing a scream he takes it upon himself to remove the bandages and as he wanders around, discovers the hospital has been ransacked. He bumps into his Doctor, Doctor Soames (Ewan Roberts) who is visibly disturbed but otherwise speaks calmly and clearly, and he explains to Bill that he like most of the rest of London appear to have been blinded by the glare from the meteor shower display last night and that Bill could be one of the only people left in London still able to see. He instructs Bill to retrieve something from the other room and whilst Bill searches for it, the Doctor kills himself by diving out the nearest window. Meanwhile at the lighthouse, Tom and Karen become increasingly annoyed, well mostly Tom, when their boat doesn't arrive to ferry them to shore. They manage to tune into a radio broadcast that explains that most of the population of England has been afflicted with blindness and any survivors are urged to make their way to a dockyard to set up a rescue centre. The broadcast also warns of a infestation of plants that can administer a fatal sting and are capable of uprooting and moving about... Bill, now clad in his naval uniform, decides to leave the hospital and as he wanders through London he comes across groups of people, clearly blinded and disorientated, moving and feeling their way around town. He makes his way to a train station where, after there is an horrendous train crash he comes across an orphaned schoolgirl; Susan (Janina Faye) who ran away from boarding school and avoided the meteor shower as she was hiding in a luggage carriage onboard the train. After witnessing a plant attack and kill a dog, they commandeer an abandoned car and drive away from the city to the docks, however when the car becomes stuck in the mud, Susan is almost attacked by one of the plants before they manage to escape. Making their way to the docks, Bill and Susan discover the place deserted, but after making their way onboard one of the vessels and tuning into various communications they discover the epidemic of blindness has spread across most of the world. After witnessing a plane crash out of the sky and into the docks, Bill and Susan commandeer a small boat and set off across the bay. Meanwhile back at the Lighthouse, Tom and Karen discover a plant has made it's way inside and after terrorising them for a moment, Tom manages to fight it off and seemingly damage the plant enough to kill it, as a radio in the background broadcasts that the whole of Paris is currently blind. Bill and Susan meanwhile appear to have made their way to France where as they drive through the towns and countryside encounter Christine Durant (Nicole Maurey) who like the others can also still see, and has set up a refuge to shelter local residents who have been blinded. As Christine and Bill debate on what to do next, Christine offers Bill and Susan the opportunity to stay at the chateau as long as they need to with Susan befriending Bettina (Carole Ann Ford), one of the blind patients. At the Lighthouse, Tom and Karen are dissecting the plant to try and learn more about them when tiredness overcomes them both and they decide to take a nap. As soon as they do the plant springs to life and escapes, waking the pair, but leading them to the conclusion that they can regenerate and not even cutting them in half is enough to kill them. Back in France and Bill makes the decision to travel on to Spain, believing that he might be able to get more help there, as he collects supplies with one of the other survivors as the chateau; Mr Coker (Mervyn Jones), they discover a meteor impact crater chock full with saplings of the plant. Mr Coker refers to them for the first time as triffids, recognising them from a garden centre plant he saw years ago and explaining that they likely originated on Earth from meteor impacts. They witness a plane crashing and after rushing to investigate, discover there is a French rescue base being setup in Toulon, Before they can get back to the chateau though the pair are attacked and Mr Coker is killed. Bill returns to the chateau to discover it has been taken over by some escaped convicts, all of which can still see. Bill manages to evacuate Christine and Susan before the chateau is overcome with triffids who proceed to attack and kill everyone. The three make their way to Toulon in the prison bus, only to discover the place in flames, and decide to head instead for the American Naval base in Cadiz, Spain. Along the way collecting a Spanish ice cream truck as their mode of transport. As they travel they are diverted and end up crossing path with a blind Spanish couple; Luis de la Vega (Geoffrey Matthews) and his wife; Teresa (Gilgi Hauser) who is pregnant and was blind prior to the meteor shower and is therefore slightly more natural than the others. Luis explains that Cadiz has been evacuated but whilst with the pair, the group learn there is a "final survivor" pick up at Alicante the following day. Overnight, Teresa gives birth and the group are alerted by Susan to discover the house is surrounded by triffids. Bill uses a farm vehicle refuelling truck onsite at the villa as a makeshift flamethrower and burns a huge number of the plants but not enough to rid them completely. As the smoke settles in the morning, Susan opines that maybe the plants can hear them and putting the theory to test, Bill and Susan discover the plants are attracted by sound. Bill instructs Christine to drive her, Susan and the de la Vega's to Alicante but not to leave the villa until he has lured the plants away with the ice cream van. Using the van, he leads the plants away from villa allowing the others to escape, and approaching the coast, he himself jumps from the van and watches as the plants continue to follow.  At the coastline he is collected by a rescue dinghy, presumably deployed by the Alicante rescue effort. Back at the lighthouse, time appears almost to be up for Tom and Karen when a group of triffids return and break in. Out of desperation, Tom sprays them with the firehose only to discover that seawater is highly corrosive to them and dissolves them on impact. As the narrator concludes that sea water was discovered to be the weapon used against the triffids, in the closing scenes we see Bill reunited with Susan and Christine evacuated as part of the Alicante pick up.

It's been a very long time since I read the book! So I'm not massively certain of all the details, and I'm reliably informed that it's the case online, but there are quite a few parts to this movie that were generally not a part of the original source material! I'm pretty sure in the book it all takes place in England for a start but I'm ok with a bit of creative licence I guess if it doesn't damage the underlying fundamentals of the movie and I don't think it does here. They keep the salient points in place; that everyone is blinded by the meteors, that the triffids are attracted to sound, and that seawater is corrosive to them so I will let the other bits slide in the spirit of making a movie, but uh yeah, this one was alright! It got a little bit ropey, and there was a few moments that were a little bit amateur but for a low-ish budget movie from the 60's it was mostly all fine.

I thought the acting was pretty decent, even Janina Faye who - at the time - would have only been young was pretty decent as Susan. She had a couple of moments where she was a bit green no err... pun intended... but she was good actually. And I thought most of the others got along just fine if not maybe a little bit stereotypical in their respective roles. I really liked Kieron Moore as Tom Goodwin who starts out as a kind of depressed alcoholic so bored, and fed up with his situation and his relationship, and ends up rediscovering his spark for science and in doing so, the relationship between him and Karen being repaired. But I also felt like he put alot into this role and he was very good. Coincidentally I also recognised him from Darby O'Gill, a Disney movie I watched recently where he had more of a bit part, but he was also decent in that.

Similarly the production work was also pretty good. The music in particular was really dramatic and they went all in with it! I guess you do have to put a bit of work in to make slow moving plants come across as genuinely threatening but they really went to town with the dramatic orchestral pieces here every time the plants were attacking! But I liked it actually, it gave the movie a bit more credibility and is one of the clichés of the time that I like to see... or... hear I guess. Camerawork and cinematography was also pretty decent and there was a couple of scenes that used some interesting angles to deliver the events that were unfolding and although it wasn't particularly hugely impressive most of the time, it did enough to keep it fresh and interesting when it was there whilst still being adequate enough to portray what was happening.

One thing I did like, but I think is more of a side effect of the production period rather than an intended action, but the whole movie was in a letterboxed aspect ratio which I'm reliably informed was 2.35:1. Although still shot on film, I believe, I don't know if that was an intended stylistic choice, but it gave the movie a bit of a boost in terms of a cinematic production. Making it feel much more like a dramatic production and not so much like a extended TV movie or something similar. Maybe just me? I just thought it was cool...!

And for what it's worth, maybe not the most intimidating, but I thought the triffids looked pretty decent. You don't get a full on shot of them to really digest how they appear from top from bottom but they get plenty of screen time and can genuinely come across as quite threatening when they are portrayed during attack scenes. They looked convincing enough, accounting for the time period and I don't feel like it really bordered on being ridiculous unlike some movie creature features that I've seen before now...

And in terms of the plot, appreciating that the source material they had to work from is pretty well known and a well respected, famous novel, I thought the movie did a good job of adapting that whilst at the same time taking a bit of creative licence and taking certain plot points in a different direction, EG: moving some of the story to Europe! Without compromising the underlying milestones of the books original plot development. Although it did feel a bit rushed as they tried to sandwich in all the key moments, and there was often a bit of a pacing issue as things were not really allowed to fester and develop before moving on to the next key point, for the most part though it told a story from start to finish and did so pretty clearly and coherently.

I feel like I'm perhaps a bit biased? And I'm not sure why? Like I'm trying to take to this movie favourably and maybe gloss over some of the negatives? But I for the most part enjoyed this one, and it was fun to watch. I think there was parts of it that were a little bit dodgy, particularly some of the special effects and a handful of the dialogue was a bit basic, a bit blunt, but imperfections aside it was a largely enjoyable and decent movie. Probably not a cinematic classic, but decent enough all the same and I could watch this again no bother. 3 out of 5.